HOMILY: The presentation of the Theotokos

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Today, she who would become the Holy of Holies, her womb destined to bear the fullness of the living God, enters the Holy of Holies. She who is more honorable then the cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim, makes more holy the holy of Holies by her very presence.

Homily: The presentation of the Theotokos

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, One God! Amen.

Our Father in heaven is the God of promise. Our Patriarch Abraham grew old, and his wife was barren. When he was one hundred years old, and his wife Sarah was 90, God promised him a child, and it was made so. They conceived, and their son Isaac was born. Later, the son Isaac, because he also was childless, prayed to the Lord, and the Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant and gave birth to twins, Jacob and Esau. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the great patriarchs of our faith. God first made his promise with Abraham: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing,” and later he would say “’Look up at the sky and count the stars — if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.” Isaac was the son of the covenant made with Abraham, and therefore a stepping stone or bridge to the fulfillment of that promise. He represented a continuation of that promise by God. Then, Jacob would follow after to become the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise, his twelve sons becoming the twelve tribes of Israel. From one of these twelve tribes the messiah would arise as King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

Abraham prefigures the Father’s love for his son, and offers a foreshadowing by nearly sacrificing his son Isaac, and on the same mountain Christ would be crucified. Isaac, who was nearly sacrificed by his father, is a prefiguration of Christ. Jacob, who wrestled with an angel for a night, portrays the greatest struggle of anyone’s faith: “recognizing God and figuring out what to do with that knowledge, wrestling and embracing God’s will.” Yet, what of the once barren wives of these great patriarchs? The Fathers of the Church are in agreement that the opening of the barren womb of these high esteemed and virtuous women are all a prefiguration of the Virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we circle back to Jacob and his miraculous vision, where he dreamed “and beheld a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.” Jacob’s ladder, as it has become known, has been identified in Eastern Orthodox theology and iconography with the incarnation of Christ through Mary.

So, we come to the parents of the Virgin Mary, who, like so many before them, were old and without child. While the entirety of the old testament points forward to Christ, they are not mentioned here. Neither are they mentioned in the annals of the new testament. Their lives, conception, and the presentation of the Theotokos to the temple, which we commemorate, all flows from the living Tradition and memory of the Church.

According to the Tradition of the Church, Joachim and Anna had been married for fifty years, and during that time remained barren and without a child. Despite this and their longing for a child, they lived quiet and devout lives. They only lived on one third of their income, giving the other two thirds to the poor and to the temple. For their faith, they had been well provided for. Yet, despite their faith, and because of their barrenness, they were chided and ridiculed by the other Jews. Even the high priest had scolded him by saying, “You are not worthy to offer sacrifice with those childless hands.” They were treated and deemed as unworthy. So, the holy and righteous Joachim and Anna gave themselves to prayer that God would work in them the same wonder he worked in Abraham and Sarah, and bless them with a child that they may be assuaged in their old age. God sent the archangel Gabriel to each of them and announced to them “a daughter most blessed, by whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed, and through whom will come the salvation of the world.” At this new promise of God, the holy and righteous Joachim and Anna in turn promised to raise their child in the Temple as a holy vessel of God.

At the age of three, Joachim and Anna took their daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the temple to be dedicated to the service of God. They processed from Nazareth to Jerusalem, a three day journey. The procession was led by virgins holding lighted tapers, with the Blessed Virgin Mary flanked and accompanied by her parents. Following them were kinsman, family, and friends all bearing lighted tapers. Fifteen steps ascended to the temple in Jerusalem, and when the procession arrived at their destination, the holy and righteous Joachim and Anna lifted the Blessed Virgin Mary onto the first step, then she quickly ascended the remaining steps on her own. At the top of the steps she was greeted by the High Priest Zacharias, who was destined to be the father of Saint John the Forerunner. He took her by the hand and led her into the temple, and then into the Holy of Holies, a place into which only the High Priest ventured, and that but once a year.

Today, she who is to become the ark of the new covenant, one day giving birth to the living law of the spirit of life, is presented to the ark of the old covenant. The law which brings death will soon give way to the law which brings life life.

Today, the Blessed Virgin Mary enters the Temple as a golden censer, destined to contain within her Christ the coal of fire, whom Holy Isaiah foresaw. Her prayers will one day rise like incense before all the saints, and for all the saints.

Today is the preview of the good will of God, of the preaching of the salvation of mankind. The Virgin appears in the temple of God, in anticipation proclaiming Christ to all. Let us rejoice and sing to her: Rejoice, O Divine Fulfillment of the Creator’s dispensation. (Troparion)

[Today] The most pure Temple of the Savior; The precious Chamber and Virgin; The sacred Treasure of the glory of God, Is presented today to the house of the Lord. She brings with her the grace of the Spirit, Therefore, the angels of God praise her: “Truly this woman is the abode of heaven.” (Kontakion)

Today we celebrate the end of the physical temple in Jerusalem as the all holy dwelling place of God. The presentation of the Theotokos – she who would bear the fullness of God within her – offers a prelude and preview to the good will of God. We celebrate Christ’s mother that we too are worthy to be an abode for, and living tabernacles of the Lord.

Today we venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary as a prefiguration of Christian life. Just as Abraham was the first to have faith in God, The Blessed Virgin Mary was the first to have faith in Christ, He who took flesh from her flesh, and from her womb the Son of God became the Son of Man. She epitomizes obedience, when at the annunciation of Christ she proclaimed “Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be done to me according to the word.” This is in spite of her desire to remain a virgin until her death, but her virginity would remain intact, and her faith remembered, rewarded, and exalted. She was a person of prayer. Raised in the Temple, she was rooted in a life of unceasing prayer. Without this kind prayer upon her heart she would not have been equipped to deal with the level of communion and contact with God that only she was especially prepared to experience and comprehend. She is a person who embodies forgiveness, who as a mother chose to forgive rather than hate when she witnessed the unjust persecution and execution of her son upon the cross. She is the great example, the prelude to Christian life.

May the following weeks of this great fast of the Nativity season be a prelude and preparation for us to receive Christ as we step into the joyous occasion of His Nativity. As we remember the Blessed Virgin Mary’s entrance into the Temple, may we prepare ourselves that Christ may enter into us as living temples of the living God; living tabernacles of the Holy Spirit. My prayer for us all is that we will use this time wisely, seeking out that which is most needful in our lives, while avoiding the anger and anxiety of our society, and not becoming poisoned and polluted by the spirit of our age. There is surely nothing more important that we could do for the salvation of the world, for the benefit and healing of our souls, and in preparation for the joy of Christmas.

By the prayers of thy most puer mother, the Holy and God bearing Father, all the saints, the martyrs, and the angels, have mercy on us and save us.

Amen.

A Desire for tears.

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A Desire for tears – January 15th, 2019.

It is said, the Devil is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Does he not hunt? Does he not prowl nor prey upon? He roars because he is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. He devours those who have given themselves over to him, caught in the subtle snares of temptation. For he has no power over us except that which we give him. Yet, we can avoid such traps, but often our curiosity gets the best of us. What is behind that door? What if? What will happen? What does this feel like, taste like, or look like? We already know the answers to these questions, but we open the door, or pursue the answer in hoping that it will be different this time. We continue to do the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different result; a different answer. This is a basis for insanity. The world is insanity.

I pray for the fortitude to avoid these temptations, but from time to time my imagination gets the best of me, haunting me from the edges of my own volition. I try to look back upon my sins with contrition, and sometimes I may get a tear or two to shed from my wearied eyes in the midst of prayer. Though, I am not an emotional person, and lament my own lack of tears. I do find music to be a key to the heart, and so there is a song I play when I feel the need to cry, because for the lyrics alone, I cannot but help cry. It is not even a Christian song, but the words reverberate in my very soul.

?Shine, shine your light on me
Illuminate me, make me complete
Lay me down, and wash this world from me
Open the skies, and burn it all away
‘Cause I’ve been waiting, all my life just waiting
For you to shine, shine your light on me?

O Lord, that I would be purified from the stains of this world; that your all consuming love would burn away the superfluities of the flesh, and my soul would be free of the passions that plague me May your light illumine me, that I may shine your light into every dark corner of this world you lead me into.

No photo description available. — Sketchbook entry from 8-10 years ago.

Sickness and Death

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Sickness and death

In order for us to approach and understand the Church’s view towards sickness and death, I think it is important to first examine and understand how Christ approached and treated sickness and death. Christ spent a good majority of his time ministering to the people by healing, raising people from the dead, forgiving sins, and the performing of miracles all towards that end. For Jesus, the forgiveness of sins, the healing of the body, the destruction of the devil, and also the raising of the dead are all one and the same act of salvation. Jesus’ ministry of healing was a healing of the whole person, body and spirit. He showed us that death could be defeated. Jesus showed us that He is Christ the Messiah, the fulfillment of the prophets who brings the Kingdom of God into the world.

“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”
James 5:14-16

Death grows within us by means of physical illness and decay. Our sufferings of sickness and illness are not normal, but are direct consequences of the ancestral sin, when Adam first rebelled against God, and thus rebelled against life, because God is life. Adam’s rebellion against Life brought suffering, sickness, decay, and death upon himself and Eve, as well as all their progeny. As such, human nature is fallen and is subject to death, and “Death is the enemy to be destroyed.” The one inescapable and unavoidable reality is that each and every human being born into this world, death is now before each and every person.

Death is not a natural part of this life, but something abnormal and truly horrible, and it is something that humanity, the world, strives daily to overcome. The world attempts to avoid death, to avoid the concept of death, even at funerals. Others choose to embrace death, developing a preoccupation with death in all its forms, some believing and treating death as the one true freedom; the one thing they can know with certainty. This latter stance may be one reason that suicide has become so prevalent today. Yet, if death is the enemy, then each person must find a way to combat that enemy. Despite the fact that it is now an inevitable part of life, death is not natural, and is what humanity strives to overcome. It is a endemic condition on humanity, one that is ever present and taking humanity in a way that was never intended.

“The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. ⁵But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 15:56-57

Understanding that death is not a natural part of life, and is a plague upon this world, upon humanity, God offers us an answer to this plague of death through Christ. Christ came to earth to redeem man, and to fully restore within us the image of God that we were fully intended to grow into, as witnessed in the Transfiguration of Christ upon Mount Tabor, which was to us a prefiguration of His resurrection. The incarnation of Christ redeemed all of creation, for all of creation fell into disarray when man fell from grace. Christ took on death and overcame it victoriously. He gave himself up to death so that he could take death captive and free all of humanity from the grip death had upon it, and therefore removed the separation of humanity and God in our death. It is for this reason that the Church proclaims in faith “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs, bestowing life,” all through the Paschal season.

Christ has triumphed over death, but death still exists in this world. Man is still subject to physical death. Christ “does not ‘abolish’ or ‘destroy’ the physical death because He does not ‘abolish’ the physical world…by abolishing death as a spiritual reality, by filling it with Himself…He makes death…into a shining and joyful passage” So, Christ has destroyed the spiritual aspects of death, but we are not free from the bonds of a physical death. “We all share the same fate, saint and sinner, young and old.”

Recognizing Christ’s role in overcoming death, we can better understand the role the Church, the body of Christ, plays in dealing with sickness and death. The Church must be properly seen as being a part of medicine, and her minsters and clergy its healers. The Church, in all reality, is a spiritual hospital. For Jesus said, ““Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Human beings, as sinners, are considered to be sick; as such, the Church is concerned with the ultimate fate of all human beings, which is their salvation through the forgiveness of sins, which can only be found within the Church, and sin being the root cause of all illness and suffering in the world. Whereas Christ defeated death, the Church is here to reveal it, not reconcile it like so many religious and religions of this world. No, the Church reveals death because it is the revelation of Life.

The Church understand and approaches sickness and death in a holistic manner, healing the root of all illness, and not merely the symptoms. While modern medicine has made many advances in technology and practice, it does not fill the need which are part of the whole of healing and health. The human person requires a healing which does not merely address the physical needs and condition, but healing that deals with the whole human being, both body and spirit. The Church realizes this need, and focuses on the entire person: mind, body, soul, and spirit. Disease may be temporarily addressed the modern medicines of this world, but it is only a temporary fix until the root cause of the problems are cured. So, the Church approaches sickness, death, and healing within the context of sin and redemption.

When one falls ill, they must recognize that whatever illness they may have, it is caused by sin, their own sin or the sins of the whole world. There is no blame for God for their ailment. God does not wish for his children to be sick. If God so wills it, one can be healed of his infirmities, allowing him more time to live in service to both God and man here on earth, fulfilling whatever He has planned. The sickness as well can serve as a means towards serving God, and it should be accepted in this way, offering ones faith and love unconditionally, for there is no greater witness to one’s faith than enduring sickness in love and faith, courage and patience, hope, happiness, and joy. Such a life lived, even to one’s death by such illness, is incomparable to any offering man can provide.

I myself have been witness to the healing mercies of our Father. January 11^th of 2016 would see me in the hospital, and slipping into full respiratory failure through pneumonia, and a culmination of other issues. After I was put on life support, Holy Unction was administered. The only thing I can remember from that day was waking briefly two times throughout that day, and hearing the psalms being read to me. The woman from the Church took turns, and sat in my room, reading the entirety of the Psalter to me. I eventually regained consciousness, and at the end of the week was the first person Chrismated into the Orthodox Church in Mountain Home, Arkansas, at my home parish. I have witnessed, believe, and understand the healing power and need of the Church in its role as a spiritual hospital of sorts for the whole and holistic healing of man.

The sacrament of healing is performed for the healing of body and soul, and for the forgiveness of sins, though it is not performed for the sake of the sick alone, but also for the physically healthy. While it may not have the focus importance equal to the rite of Baptism or the ongoing celebration of the Holy Eucharist within the life of the Church, it still addresses a fundamental need in human life. “Healing is a sacrament, not healing as such, the restoration of health, but the entrance of man into the life of the kingdom, into the joy and peach of the Holy Spirit.” As such, the prayers of the Sacrament of Healing are penitential in nature, asking for the forgiveness of one’s sins. The body is anointed, invoking the grace of God upon the ill and infirmed, because it is the grace of God that heals all illnesses, both body and soul.

Despite the importance of the Sacrament of Healing, this emphasis on spiritual healing and wellbeing does not mean that one should forgo any attempt at physical healing. All things can be used to the glory of God. All healing, both spiritual and physical should be brought to God with prayer. Faith does not stand in opposition to science, nor science to faith, but science confirms what faith has already revealed. God is the source of both, and all things, and as such the two are not in opposition to one another. Just as theosis is achieved through cooperation with God, so is healing a cooperation of human effort, and prayer, with God and His will.

Ultimately not all people are physically healed, some slipping from this life into the next through whatever illness was plaguing them. It is here we transition from the rite of healing, into the funeral rites of the Orthodox Church. The service helps those in attendance develop a greater understanding of the meaning and purpose of life. It assists us with the emotional response we develop at the time of death, as well as the time that passes after. It also places an emphasis on the fact that death is not the end, and helps to affirm our hope in salvation and life eternal. The funeral rite, by the prayers, hymns, and readings that take place, is a dialogue between God and the people, as well as God and the dearly departed. The service also recognizes the realities of our human existence, our frailty and finite time in this world, and the vanity of this world and all the things in it. We bless the departed and say goodbye with a final kiss of peace, with our pain of separation and the tragedy of death being acknowledged in the hymns that are sung. We pass from this life with both prayers and tears, but are soon welcomed into the joy and gladness of the Lord.

Our sins, our illnesses, and our eventual death are all related one to another. By Adam’s sin both sickness and death were ushered into this world, and it is through Christ and his resurrection that humanity is redeemed and released from the grip of death. The nature of sin and death are recognized within both the rites of healing and the funeral service, yet so is the fact that Christ has conquered all of these things for the redemption for the whole of mankind. He is an offering of truth and life for those within the body of Christ, which is the Church, forgiving all of our sins to the betterment of all mankind. Christ, truly, is the life of the world.

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HOMILY: Rejoice in the Lord!

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HOMILY: Rejoice in the Lord! – December 29th, 2019

Readings: Philippians 4:4-7, John 1:19-28

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; one God. Amen.

As we come to the end of another calendar year, we approach this time with words of thanksgiving for all that we have and have endured, and also of expectation as we rejoice for what is yet to come. We look at the past twelve months and we realize that most of us have much to be thankful for: we rejoice for our successes and triumphs; we rejoice for our health and wellbeing; we rejoice for our family and friends; and we rejoice that Christ is in our midst, where He is and ever shall be. For all these things we give thanksgiving and praise, prayer and supplication always, for we remember that all things come from the Father.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”

These are the words of Saint Paul in our Epistle reading this morning, and regrettably we recognize that it is not always easy to rejoice, for not all moments seem pleasant to those that endure them; to those that endure loss; to those that endure suffering; to those that endure heartache and hardship; to those that endure the darkness because it seems as though the light has left them. Yet, even in times such as these we can find reasons to rejoice; for, in our sufferings we find strength; in our pain we find the power to endure; in the loss of all things we are freed from the world; in the loss of life we rejoice in hope, and look for an age yet to come. No matter the darkness and how cold it may seem, we hold onto the light of Christ, for the Light will dispel the darkness, or make longer the shadows and reveal the objects within our lives causing them.

Saint John Chrysostom also says similarly in his own Homily on the letter to the Philippians:

“It is comforting to know that the Lord is at hand…Here is a medicine to relieve grief and every bad circumstance and every pain. What is it? To pray and to give thanks in everything. He does not wish that a prayer be merely a petition but a thanksgiving for what we have received…How can one make petitions for the future without a thankful acknowledgment of past things?…So one ought to give thanks for everything, even what seems grievous. That is the mark of one who is truly thankful. Grief comes out of the circumstances with their demands. Thanksgiving comes from a soul that has true insight and a strong affection for God.”

We rejoice because He is with us, and we have much to be thankful for. We look forward to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we rejoice, because he is our Lord God, and King. Then, we look forward to and celebrate theophany, the revelation of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – on the waters of the Jordan, and rejoice because He is all merciful and compassionate toward His Children. We endure the somber period of the Lenten season, and we rejoice because He is Risen, having endured His crucifixion upon a cross, dying that we may live. He ascended that the Holy Spirit might descend, and we rejoice that we were worthy to be recipients of God’s grace. We endure the darkness of this world, just as the many saints who have gone before us, but we rejoice in the resurrection yet to come; we rejoice in God’s love and our healing of soul and body, the salvation of many, and the forgiveness of all.

We give praise and thanksgiving for the days that have come to pass, and look forward with joyful expectation at what is yet to come. Paul tells us not to be anxious about anything,“but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” We pray with thanksgiving, and we give voice to our thoughts, making them a tangible thing, making them real; for, even all of creation was spoken into existence. So, we say our prayers, say our confessions, say our creeds, that all these things may become real within us; that they may manifest themselves in our lives. Yet, this is only but a single reason why our prayers matter, not only to ourselves, but to the very world in which we live.

Our prayer is an encounter and relationship with God. It is through prayer that we anchor ourselves to the present moment, for indeed it is the only moment in which we can encounter God. Yes, we look back with thanksgiving on the past, and we look forward to the future with hopeful and joyful expectation, but it is only the present moment that matters to us. God is present to us at all times and in all places. He is present simultaneously in the past, present, and future, but it is only in the present moment in which we live, exist, and experience this life. Christ himself exhorts us in the Gospel of Matthew to “not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own,” and there is little we can do about the past, so we pray always, offering up the present moment to God, so that “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Tomorrow may remain a mystery, but today is a gift from God, and I jokingly say that this is why it is called the present.

It is only in the present moment that we can be still and know that He is God; but, the world provides no such peace. Far too often the world lives in a distracted state of mind, and with many, their focus of attention is divided between their mobile devices, tablets, and cell phones instead of the people and places around them in the present moment. People would rather interact through an artificial glass wall, numbing any sense of true relationship and warmth we would experience with others. We are often distracted by the advertisements and sales pitches of the world around us, telling us how the world should look – billboards, magazine racks, television commercials, radio commercials, gossip and opinion, and so forth – driving us to focus on that which we should have, instead of what we have right now. Our attention is scattered on a vision of how the world tells us things should be, instead of how the world really is. Our mind is often divided between our past and future concerns, but rarely on the importance of the present moment. Because of this, many people have no joy, cannot rejoice or be joyful, because this can only happen within our present moment. Prayer and thanksgiving can only happen where we are.

We are often so focused on doing, that we leave little time for the act of being, being Children of God, being Saints, being perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect. Though, one should not consider the act of doing, and the act of being, to be two separate things. For, we have been exhorted to pray without ceasing, but this is not always an act of words. We become our prayer within our day to day lives; we incarnate Christ into the world; and we become that which we pray for, that for others and ourselves.

Prayer is the beginning of all theology, as Vladimir Lossky says. Prayer alone will give our soul the spiritual strength to endure all things. So, without prayer, there is no spiritual life alive within us. Our faith, our prayer, should become a state of being – it is not enough to say prayers, but we must become our prayer, become a Christian, and incarnate our faith by word AND deed. Our prayer life should be lived, and our prayers should be interwoven with our life, otherwise they become vestigial words and phrases that we simply offer in our short periods we turn towards God. Our prayers and our actions should become two expressions of the same situation. Also, we must approach our prayer life as a mutual relationship of friendship. God must be the object of our prayer, our wanting, for the intensity and elation of our prayer is often about the object of our prayer rather than the one to whom our prayer is addressed.

“All of life, each and every act, every gesture, even the smile of the human face, must become a hymn of adoration, an offering, a prayer. One should offer not what one has, but what one is.” (Bishop Kallistos Ware)

This is the gift we give: our lives. We do this because it is the only gift we can give which is reciprocal of itself, given in response to the gift which we have received ourselves: eternal life. It is for this gift, and many other reasons we are exhorted not once, but twice by the Apostle Paul in the same passage to rejoice; to be thankful for everything in prayer and thanksgiving. So let us become joy; let us all become Joy to the world because Christ our King has come, and is coming. It is a beautiful day our Lord God has made, so let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Through the prayers of our holy fathers and mothers, and Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.

Amen

Virgin Mary “Rejoices in Thee” (All Creation Rejoice), Orthodox Icon

Poem – Unworthy

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Unworthy (Poem) – February 26, 2019

May your light always shine upon me Lord

That I may never know the darkness of my iniquity

May I always remember and redeem the gift

The life that you have given me, that I may

Give back to you my life in return

I pray that day that I am found worthy

If only to peer through the gates of paradise

To feel the warmth of your all consuming love

upon my face, falling upon my face to embrace

your blessed feet, and those of the saints

Those holy ones who have gone before me

And those who will follow me in my repose.

I pray that I am deemed worthy, if only

To hear the echo of your heavenly choir

I pray that I may be received at least

to hold the door for those most holy,

And higher than such a wretched sinner

as myself, most unworthy to receive you

and to be received by you, oh Lord.

Spiritual Athletes

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Spiritual Athletes – February 24, 2019

READINGS: 1 Cor 9:24-10:5, Matthew 20:1-16

Homily – Spiritual Athletes

In our Gospel and Epistle readings this morning, we hear two different stories, with two different messages, yet both of them are related in that they point towards the same end. Though, I will admit that one story with the message “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last,” when held against another story about racing, seems somewhat counter productive, but I digress. That aside, they both point towards the same end, the same reward, and that is the crown of everlasting life promised to those who love him, Jesus Christ our Lord.

In both stories we see a labor for the reward received, not that we should believe that we receive it by what we do, but we shall receive nothing if we do nothing, for a faith without works is dead (James 2:16). In the Gospel reading all the laborers worked, though not all equally, and all received the same reward. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is speaking of a race, in which all compete, but will only receive the reward if they finish the race. In both cases, the plurality of voices found within the patristic witness of the Church agrees that these are active analogies of our faith, that the reward is indeed eternal life in Christ our God. I say they are active analogies because the case is clearly and plainly presented that our faith is an active faith. We must do something with our faith. A mental ascent and acquiescence to the teachings of the faith alone is not enough. Simply saying “we believe” and “we love” is not enough. Our faith is not a feeling. Simply checking the box and showing up on Sundays is not enough. Indeed our faith is an active faith, for an idle mind is the seed of many sins, but an idle body is the field from which they grow. We must remember the words of Christ, who himself exhorted, “if you love me, you will obey my commandments.”

So, in Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians he uses the imagery of a race. It would not have been lost upon those hearing this letter read to them, that in those races Paul uses as an analogy, in order to race within those races, one must first be a Roman citizen in order to participate. So, before one can even participate in this race, our race to which Paul speaks, one must first be a citizen within the kingdom of heaven – a theme alluded to in some of his other writings – which is accomplished through our baptism and Chrismation into the body of Christ. So, this is a letter not only to the Corinthians, but to all baptized Christians to complete the race as athletes in Christ, so that they may receive the crown of glory as their prize. Yet, one cannot hope to succeed in any race, as I am sure some of our runners here can attest, unless they become proficient and practiced athletes. Yet, we do not run with sore feet, we do not lift heavy weights, we do not exert ourselves to physical feats of fortitude and glory, but our athleticism is a spiritual one; our training is found in the ascesis of the Church; our strength is found in Christ who grows in each of us, as we ourselves willingly and sacrificially decrease.

In the words of Tertullian of Carthage, in his own commentaries on these verses, he speaks to the same sentiment here:

“Your master, Jesus Christ has anointed you with the Spirit and has brought you to this training ground. He determined long before the day of the contest to take you from a softer way of life to a harsher regimen, that your strength may increase. Athletes are set apart for more rigid training to apply themselves to the building up of their strength. They are kept from lavish living, from more tempting dishes, from more pleasurable drinks. They are urged on, they are subjected to tortuous toils, they are worn out. The more strenuously they have exerted themselves, the greater is their hope of victory.”

We who are on the cusp of great Lent, are about to enter into the Marathon of our faith in the coming weeks, where we test our spirits, strengthen our resolve, and temper our very bodies and souls into the image and likeness of Christ. Yet, when Holy Week comes and goes, and Pascha passes us by, it is yet just another lap completed in the sacramental life we live within the sacramental rhythm of the Church. It is race we keep running till the day we take our last breath, and it is a reward not received until the day of the dread judgement when we can finally hear those sweet and gentle words of our Lord and Savior – well done my good and faithful servant.

So, how do we as mortal men and women become spiritual athletes in the eternal arena of our faith? How do we as Christians accomplish this in the scope and context of our faith? Using the words of Saint Seraphim of Sarov, we do this through the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.

“Prayer, fasting, vigils and all the other Christian practices may be, they do not constitute the aim of our Christian life. Although it is true that they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end, the true aim of our Christian life consists of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ’s sake, are the only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God.”

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; these are the practices of our Christian faith that strengthen the spirit in those qualities virtue and goodness, and make us stronger spiritual athletes, with which we can overcome all obstacles of faith. These are the means by which we obtain the rewards promised to those who love him.

In our struggle to become better spiritual athletes, I will go over the three main spiritual exercises that strengthen us for the race ahead.

Exercise one – Prayer

“Prayer alone will give your soul the strength… In order to acquire spiritual muscles, you have to go to the spiritual gym.” – Elder Sergei of Vanves

Our prayer life is our spiritual gym. Our prayer is the locus by which all virtue is obtained, and in the words of Theophan the recluse:

“If you are not successful in your prayer, you will not be successful in anything, for prayer is the root of everything”

By prayer we unite the mind and heart, and also the mind and the heart with God. We pray so that God’s will would be done in this life; that whatever we have need of would be given; that whatever we do and all that we do, we do with full awareness that we depend God in all that he is, in all that we are.

Without prayer, there is no spiritual life alive within us. For, in the words of Saint Tikhon, “As a bird without wings, as a soldier without arms, so is a Christian without prayer.” So in his words we understand that without prayer we cannot rise to the heavens without wings, and we cannot engage in battle without arms, and so it is without prayer that we are flightless, defenseless, and without aid from on high. Yet, Prayer consisting of words alone is not of any assistance to us if the heart does not participate in prayer.

Our faith, our prayer, should become a state of being – it is not enough to say prayers, to simply be a Christian, but we must become our prayer, become a Christian, and incarnate our faith by word AND deed. Our prayer life should be lived, and our prayers should be interwoven with our life, otherwise they become vestigial words and phrases that we simply offer in our short periods we turn towards God. Our prayers and our actions should become two expressions of the same situation. Also, We must approach our prayer life as a mutual relationship of friendship. God must be the object of our prayer, our wanting, for the intensity and elation of our prayer is often about the object of our prayer rather than the one to whom our prayer is addressed.

“All of life, each and every act, every gesture, even the smile of the human face, must become a hymn of adoration, an offering, a prayer. One should offer not what one has, but what one is.”

This is the gift we give, our lives. We do this because it is the only gift we can give which is reciprocal of itself, given in response to the gift which we have received ourselves – which is eternal life.

Exercise two – Fasting

In addition to prayer, we find fasting as a prescription of the Church. We fast, in addition to, and in conjunction with prayer, in order to train the body, to train ourselves in resisting the passions of the flesh. For, If we cannot resist even the smallest morsel of food, then we have no hope in battling the greater temptations in our own lives. Start with the small act of fasting, and your foundation of iniquity will erode and collapse as though a house built on sand.

In a hymn by Saint Basil the Great, we hear the following words:

“Let us fast an acceptable and very pleasing fast to the Lord. True fast is the estrangement from evil, temperance of tongue, abstinence from anger, separation from desires, slander, falsehood perjury. Privation of these is true fasting.”

We fast from food to strengthen us in fasting from all things harmful and unneeded to our spiritual lives. Fasting is a means in which to practice self control on our path towards conquering the passions of the flesh. Fasting is an exercise of both penitence and sacrifice (for there is no love without sacrifice), which assist in conquering of self, and being more attentive to those in need. Indeed, fasting was a practice often commended by the Fathers of the early Church, and was considered a universally applied spiritual discipline, as can be seen in some following quotes:

“Just as the most bitter medicine drives out poisonous creatures, so prayer joined to fasting drives even sinful thoughts away.” – Amma Syncletia – Desert Mother.

“If a man goes about fasting and hungry, the enemies of his soul grow weak.” Abba John the Dwarf – Desert Father.

“There are three levels of partaking of food: abstinence, adequacy, and satiety. To abstain means to remain a little hungry after eating; to eat adequately means neither to be hungry nor to be weighed down; to be satiated means to be slightly weighed down. But eating beyond satiety is the door to belly-madness, through which lust comes in. But you, firm in this knowledge, choose what is best for you, according to you powers, without overstepping the limits.” Saint Gregory of Sinai

Last but certainly not least, Saint Basil the Great:

“Be cheerful since the physician has given you sin-destroying medicine. For just as worms breeding in the intestines of children are utterly eradicated by the most pungent medicines, so too, when a fast truly worthy of this designation is introduced into the soul, it kills the sin that lurks deep within.”

Fasting builds a quality of character in the Christian life through the mortification of the flesh. We conquer ourselves in the defeat of gluttony, for indeed the appetites of the flesh are roots of much evil. So, we counter sin with virtue, gluttony with fasting, and develop our ability for self control.

Exercise three – Almsgiving

Almsgiving is a practice of virtue that goes hand in hand with fasting, and prayer. When one practices virtue through prayer and fasting, one must also show our love of Christ, our love of one another through active and sacrificial giving to others. Like our prayers, like our fasting, we must remember to keep them always in secret, for what we do we do not for man, but in the presence of God alone.

We know that love fulfills the whole law, and is the greatest of the commandments, but scripture also tells us that there is no real love if we do not share what we have and/or have in excess with those who do not:

“But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” ~1 John 3:17

“A Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” ~James 1:27

“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin”
~ James 4:17

There are many other verses in scripture that attest to the necessity of our attention and care to others in need. A spiritual man must give of his own sustenance cheerfully and not reluctantly to those who are poor, and in need. The giving of alms must also be sacrificial (for again there is no love without sacrifice), so we must take from ourselves when we give to others. We give for the sake of others, for if we first do not see ourselves in the other, then we may never see Christ, for “your neighbor is your true self. You have no self in yourself.” Also, in the words of Saint Basil, “If every man took only what was sufficient for nis needs, leaving the rest to those in want, there would be no rich and, and there would be no poor.”

All earthly possessions are not our own, but belong to the creator of all things. As such, men are but stewards and caretakers of all that belongs to the Lord, and as such we should be good stewards with what we have been entrusted with, that we would be rewarded with even greater treasures in heaven. Saint Basil the Great says that a man who has two coats or two pair of shoes, when his neighbor has none, is a thief. For us to store up earthly possessions, Christ has told us, is foolishness.

For those who strive for the perfection of Christ, to give is to gain. He who is truly perfect as his Father in heaven is perfect is one who gives, and who has given all things for the sake of others. Such a man is truly living a spiritual life, for he has no attachment to the things of this world, and it is man’s attachment to the things of this world that causes much suffering, both to ourselves and to others.

In Conclusion:

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the three great ascetic practices of our faith, the exercise and growth of our spiritual lives in the race we run towards the reward of our eternal life. If we grow in our spiritual lives, grow in strength through the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, we become able athletes in the race of faith that lies before us. Yet, our spiritual life is far more than just our thoughts and feelings, and in fact it is comprised of the whole human experience, the full depth of our humanity: thought, feeling, heart, soul, vision, mind, and body. Not only this, our spiritual lives should be comprised of our everyday experiences – work, school, our social life, family life, home life – and not just be compartmentalized to Church on Sunday mornings. We should live our life cognizant of the sacramental rhythm in which we exist as Orthodox Christians, and incarnating Christ in our lives not just on Sunday, but in everything that we do. The spiritual life is important for all Christians, because it is the only life that a Christian can live, it is the only life that directs our whole being towards Jesus Christ. Any other life lived is but a poor imitation, and a life lived beneath our intended human dignity.

We must be cognizant that spiritual growth only happens by patient struggle, struggles with temptation, pride, the passions, and ourselves. Though, in fighting through our myriad struggles, we must remember to have faith in spite of what happens, and not because of it, for our faith is what brings us hope.

Amen.

Give Thanks

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Give Thanks – February 4th, 2019

Even if you have received what you wanted or needed, even before you have prayed for it, pray anyways and give thanks to God in all things.

Even if you don’t receive what you pray for, give thanks to God that he has the The knowledge to know what is needed for our greater good even when we do not.

Psalmody #2 – Prayer of Repentance.

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Psalmody #2 – Prayer of Repentance – January 17, 2019

Oh Lord, I am not worthy of your love.

I am most unworthy to receive the gifts you have given me.

I do not praise you as I should, and I do not pray likewise.

I am not mindful of your presence in all things.

I am a wretched sinner, Lord; I am deserving of death.

I am not worthy to receive the light you shine,

rather appearing to prefer the darkness before me.

Why cannot I not turn away from myself oh Lord,

and leave behind the fetters of sin that hold me.

My very soul is disquieted within me, it weeps

My very soul sheds many tears for my many sins,

for they are great in iniquity, and even greater in number.

Like the stars in the sky, so are my misdeeds,

and the darkness behind them consumes me.

Yet I know that your light shines brightly, uncreated,

and you alone can dispel the darkness that consumes.

You alone are the light unto all nations, and all people.

I will step out from the darkness of the shadow of my sins,

and bring your light into where the darkness dwells.

I pray, Oh Lord, that I shine brightly, but shine

Not of myself, or my word, or my works, I pray

That I shine because of nothing of myself, but because of you,

I pray that I will shine the light of your truth,

that all would be enkindled in the warmth of your love,

As long as I carry that light within me,

I pray the shadow of my sin nevermore consumes me.

Incarnating our Prayer life.

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Incarnating our prayer life – January 8th, 2019

Our prayer life should be lived, and our prayers should be interwoven with our life, otherwise they become vestigial words and phrases that we simply offer in our short periods we turn towards God. Our prayers and our actions should become two expressions of the same situation.

The Light of Joy

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The Light of Joy – January 3,rd, 2019

Remain in those prayers and spiritual labors that bring you great joy, for the joy of the Lord surpasses all others. Become the prayer you seek, for ours is an active faith. Those who remain in the light of such Joy, seldom fall into darkness of mind.